So, sorry for this month-long hiatus! My day job has been brutal lately and I recently started up online classes. I have also been working on YouTube videos for the first time in like... 2 years haha. It's been refreshing, but I only have so many spoons and as much as I wish I could, I can't give my all to every creative project and I don't want to half-ass it. Gotta say, not having to constantly grind away doing body-destroying manual labor day in and day out to get my basic needs met and to pay for school would be nice. I'll forever miss being a kid with unlimited free time, boundless ideas and so much energy.

I should probably start getting more comfortable with small site updates, instead of feeling like I need to deliver this earth-shattering magnum opus of an update every time I visit here. This problem extends to every creative work of mine, but I'm determined to break through. More updates soon, hopefully. I want to put this goal in writing so y'all can rip me a new one if I don't follow through, lol.

Let's switch to a more personal subject: those online classes. I haven't shared this much online, but I am moving to Japan next year to study at a Japanese Language School for 2 years. From there, I will try with everything I've got to break into the translation industry and connect people around the world through my work. I will for sure be sharing a lot about my time in Japan on this site, so look forward to that and feel free to leave some requests for things in Japan you would like me to explore, write about, and share here with y'all.

That's all I've got for now! There's honestly so much more I could talk about, but some things are better left unsaid, and I will just have to deal with them myself and get through this year in one piece. Seriously, my solidarity to anyone who is in that middle point of a transitional phase of life where you've covered so much ground, but somehow it still all feels hopeless. Rooting for ya!! This is all gonna be worth it in the end. See ya on the flipside.

Here we are at day 5 of this site being online, and there is already so much to celebrate! This has been a grueling, exciting week of 5 shifts in a row at work, coming home and working on the site for hours, sleeping, rinse, repeat. Frankly, I've been a little obsessed with working on this page and it's been some of the most challenging but fulfilling work I've done in years. In this short week I have learned so much about CSS and Javascript which had previously been roadblocks for me. The slow-motion collapse of social media has lit a fire under my ass to take webdev seriously and try to make something I'm really proud of.

So far it has been a roaring success, if y'all have been any indication -- The site had its 5000th visitor today! I'm not really sure WHY so many people are interested in this skeleton of a site in its current state, but I appreciate it tremendously. I can't wait to fill in the blanks with my writings, art, video work... maybe even a shrine page for the lovely Sony MiniDisc because why the hell not! It's my site baby, and nobody can stop me!

Signing off for now, there's a long road ahead in the creation of this site and I gotta get back to paving it. Thanks again for stopping by The JoZone and showing so much love! See ya on the flipside.